The Gift of Reality
by lizzydoesntknow12
Summary: Takes place in the future. It's just a normal day for Quinn until she gets a blast from the past. How will she handle meeting her own daughter again? Can she tell her what happened and deal with the consequences? Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

Quinn let out a frustrated sigh as she stood in line for some iced coffee, rapping her fingernails against the counter. She has finally gotten a day off from work and she wanted to have as much free time as possible. Quinn wondered what was taking the girl in front of her so long when she was called up the next register. She was opening her wallet when she hears an exasperated sigh from the child at the next register.

"I _know_ it's in here somewhere," she said, rummaging through her bag. "Just give me a second." The man at the register nodded. Quinn guessed the girl was about fifteen, maybe younger. "Here it is!" The girl said with a grin, pulling out her ID and placing it on the counter with a few extra dollars. _Who needs their ID to buy something at a coffee shop?_ Quinn wondered before paying for her iced coffee. The girl fixed her striped beanie, tossing some of her long blonde hair over her shoulder.

"Thanks." She picked up her drink when the teen at the next register struggled to put her bag over her shoulder, knocking into Quinn, causing her to spill her drink all over the both of them and all over the floor. She let out a sigh of anger.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry- hold on, I'll get it, hold this for a second?" The younger one said, handing Quinn her ID as she grabbed some napkins and started to wipe Quinn's arm and herself with the napkin.

"Um, I-… okay… I'll just…" Quinn froze, reading the ID that she was holding in her hand. _Beth C. Corcoran_. This had to be some kind of sick joke, it couldn't be her. _Sex: F, DOB: 6/8/2010 Age:14._ Oh God. It looked to be her school ID, with a picture of her in a uniform up in the corner. Quinn was so taken that she had forgotten all about the spill until the child, who she now knew, was wiping her face with napkins. Quinn spit some of the paper out of her mouth as she backed away.

"Sorry about all this, you're not gonna tell my mom are you?" Beth observed what the blonde woman was wearing, leaving an upset frown on her face. "Aw, you're a business lady!" The words sounded poison as they escaped from her mouth. She thought about all of the things that could go wrong. Her mother, Shelby, was only a few steps away from taking her camera. She didn't find that very fair. After all, it was _her_ camera. _She_ payed for it.

"I-I beg your pardon?" Quinn questioned, not with the slightest bit of anger in her voice. She was to shocked to even move.

"Forget it, can I have my ID back? I have to get back home, I didn't think I'd be gone this long." In a rush, Beth picked up her bag and grabbed her ID, tossing the soggy napkins in the trash. "Sorry again!" She yelled with a wave of her hand as she ran out of the shop.

"B-But…" And Quinn was alone again. This girl, her _daughter_, had just popped back into her life and out again. What was she supposed to do now? "Goodbye…" She stood there, unable to move. The usual crowd of the coffee shop was done watching the misfortune of the two and had turned their focuses elsewhere. Tears formed in Quinn's eyes as she ran out, not bothering for a taxi. She wanted to walk around. She didn't know where, she didn't know why, but she needed to take a walk.

She walked to a small park and sat on a bench, taking in what she had witnessed, it had all happened so fast. Quinn closed her eyes and shook her head. She tried to convince herself that it hadn't happened, that it wasn't her. She had so many questions to ask herself. She had so many questions to ask Beth. Did Shelby every tell her? What if she hated the thought of having a mother that would give her up? What if she hated Quinn? More than anything, Quinn just wanted to talk to her. She wanted to tell her that she wasn't just some teenage slut from Ohio that didn't want to keep her baby. She wanted to tell her about Puck, about how much of a difference she's made in her life just by those few minutes in the coffee shop. No matter what happened next, she knew that her day off was _not_ going as planned.

**Sorry this chapter is so short, it seemed a lot longer while I was writing it! I'm still sorta new to , so if it takes me a little bit to update this story it's because I can't get it to work. I'm not going to plead for reviews because I know how annoying that is to read, but maybe you could tell me to continue or not? Thanks for reading! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

After sitting on that uncomfortable bench for long enough, it started to drizzle. It then started to rain. Next, it _poured._ She felt like a child, sitting there all alone, sulking in her own depression. She couldn't live like this, seeing her child but not being able to talk to her. The poor girl had just met her own mother and she didn't even know it.

Quinn stood up and fixed her skirt. She wondered if Shelby still lived in the same blue house on Boare Road. She was going to find out.

She ran to the curb and held out her hand for a taxi. One stopped for her and she was about to get in when she thought for a moment. _Shit, I must have dropped my wallet when she bumped into me!_ She frowned. What was she supposed to do now? Quinn politely tapped on the man's window and he rolled it down.

"Excuse me, do you know which way Boare Road is from here?"

"Of course. If you go to your left and take another left, the 800 block is on your right." She gave him a huge smile.

"Thank you so much!" That wasn't far at all, and she only needed to get to the 900 block. She started to run in her heels before deciding that was a bad idea. Why did she even wear these clothes on days where she didn't have to work? It was all she owned nowadays, really. Quinn bent down and held her shoes in her hands and ran off to find her daughter.

917 Boare Road. Well, this is it. Quinn took a deep breath and knocked on the door, quickly fixing her hair. Beth opened the door, a sheepish look on her face.

"Oh, it's _you._" She said guiltily. "I swear, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to get coffee all over your work clothes… and I rushed out and everything. Please, _please_ don't tell my mom, you don't understand! I-" Beth only now noticed how wet she was. "Why are you wet? And where are your shoes?" She said with a giggle.

She just stood there, looking at her own daughter like an idiot, her mouth falling slightly open. She hadn't even planned what to say. "I.. I just…oh." _Good job looking sophisticated Quinn,_ she thought as she slipped on her shoes. "And I'm not here to tell on you… I wanted to talk to you."

"_Thank_ you!" Beth sighed of relief as she jumped out of the doorway and broke the space between them with a tight hug. She wrapped her arms around what she thought was just a stranger, leaving half of Quinn's arms squished and dangling. She didn't take this as a heartwarming mother/daughter moment, for she was still hesitant with this. When Beth realized that the woman wasn't exactly responding to the gesture of thanks, she pulled away, still grinning. "So whad'ya wanna talk about?"

"I-"

"Wanna come inside? You're soaked. You must be freezing out there!" She grabbed Quinn's arm and pulled her inside, throwing her a towel. "Have a seat!"

Quinn, still stunned, took a moment to adjust. Her fourteen year old daughter was standing in front of her. She was tall for her age. Her eyes were deep and brown like Noah's which made her smile. Her straight blonde hair was down to her waist and some tiny pieces in the front were braided together. She wore a different hat then the time before. It had strings coming down on either side of it and a ball of fluff on the top of it. Her sweatshirt was striped and vibrant. To Quinn, she was the most beautiful girl in the world. She'd already missed out on so much of her life. Did she really want to just let this go? "Uh, sure, yeah." She wrapped the towel around herself and took a seat on the big green couch adjacent from the girl.

"There's something that I have to tell you…" Quinn whispered looking down. "This is going to be hard for you to grasp, seeing as you sorta just met me."

Beth's usual face full of enthusiasm dropped into a face full of curiosity. She nodded for Quinn to continue.

She took a breath. This was going to be harder than she thought.

**Tell me what you think! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

After Quinn had explained the whole story to Beth, she had a lot of questions. She asked her things like "What did you say to your mom?" and "What did everyone at school say?".

After those questions were answered, Beth seemed angry.

"Why did you give me up? Didn't you want to keep me?" The child yelled across the room.

"Of course I did… I didn't know what to do. I was young, I'm sorry." Quinn had tried her best to stay calm. She didn't want to cry in front of her, she didn't want to make her upset. Beth looked down and played with her fingers.

"When the doctors let you hold me, you still didn't want me?" The way she said this reminded Quinn a lot of herself, she felt like she was looking in a mirror. She knew that she had only truly known this girl for a few hours, but seeing the sadness in her eyes made Quinn want to cry. She wanted to hold her daughter and hug her, let her know that she's sorry, that she made a mistake. Neither of them were ready for that, and they both knew it.

Tears quickly formed in Quinn's eyes. "Of_ course_ I wanted to keep you, but I had to do what was right for me and for Puck, and for _you_." Her lip was trembling just as the younger one's had when she began telling her story. Beth looked appalled.

"Puck? _Please_ tell me that's not my fathers' name." That got a small smile to appear on Quinn's face.

"His name is Noah, Noah Puckerman. He just goes my Puck, though. He was really popular so nobody picked on him for that or anything." Beth nodded her head. This was really hard for her. Shelby never spoke of this. I mean, she always thought that she looked nothing like her "mom" because the dad had blonde hair or something along the lines of that. But now _this_? I mean, if some stranger came into your house, claiming to be your mother, would you believe her?

"Why wouldn't mom tell me this? Why would she keep this from me?"

"I don't know, I was sorta hoping she already had so I wouldn't have to do all of the explaining." Quinn said with a shrug as she looked at the floor. Beth frowned.

"How do I know that this isn't all just a lie?" Quinn's head popped up, but instead of narrowing her eyes, they widened.

"A _lie_? Why on earth would someone lie about something like this?" She shouted as she sat up. "What do you think I am, some kind of rapist who snuck into your home with some ridiculous story?" Quinn knew she was acting like a child, but this day had been insane for her. Her relaxing day off from work turned into an insane game of Family Feud.

Beth scoffed. "Well now that you say it you're sort of creeping me out." The room became silent. That's the problem, the two of them are too much alike. She stood up and opened the door. "Please leave, my_ real_ mother will be home soon and I don't want her to have to walk into a house with a stranger in it." She spoke softly. Quinn stood up and walked to the door. She looked up at her daughter with tear filled eyes.

"I'm sorry I disappointed you."

And with that, the woman left her child at the door, not knowing if they will ever meet again.

**I know it's short, but it plays an important role. Thank you all sooo much for your reviews. I came home from rehearsal to find so many emails! You guys are the best! Thanks for reading:) I'm pretty busy but I'll try to get the next chapter up A.S.A.P! But you have to tell me, I'm debating between having Quinn married to Sam in this story and/or ending up with Puck (either will do, in other words, she can be happy and stay with Sam, or be married to Sam but etc. happens and she ends up with Puck), or she can be single and end up with Puck and/or Sam. I won't tell you guys what I end up doing so you will be surprised, but I'd like some opinions on what you think. Thanks again!  
**


	4. Chapter 4

Quinn had a horrible sleep that night. She constantly woke up with nightmares referring back to that night in the hospital. Each time it felt so _real_. She can't forget about Beth, she loves her. She's her daughter. She regrets missing the first half of her life. She thought about Shelby. What would she think? Would she be angry? Would she be happy? There were too many thoughts running through her head at four in the morning, she'd much rather are sleeping.

She woke up around ten to a phone call. She groggily opened her eyes and grabbed the phone.

"H-Hello?" Her voice was scratchy.

"Quinn! Oh, God, you better come over quick! What on _earth_ is taking you so long?" Quinn sighed, recognizing the voice.

"What are you talking about Rachel? God, why are you calling so early?" Although Rachel was her best friend (and co-worker), she always was one to overreact.

"Early? Quinn, it's ten o' clock. You're late! The big meeting is in twenty minutes!" Ten! She hadn't even glanced at the clock yet.

"Shit! I never set my alarm!" Quinn quickly turned the phone on speaker and ran around the room to get ready. She slid her hair out of her ponytail and brushed it until you could see the natural waves, she had no time to straighten.

"Mr. Greenwald is coming, in case you've forgotten." The sound of Rachel's voice blasted throughout Quinn's apartment.

"Yes, I'm aware, thank you." She took her bangs on either side of her face and brought them around to the back of her hair where she combined them into a small ponytail.

"And he's deciding who to give the promotion to, don't forget that!" Rachel pestered.

"Yes, thank you Rachel." She slipped into a yellow blouse, which's sleeves cut off right above the shoulder. It was a fitting top, and the ruffles added a nice flair. She jumped into a gray jacket that's bottoms only went halfway down her torso.

"If you don't get that promotion, chances are you won't be able to-" Quinn interrupted the babbling girl as she hopped on one foot, sliding into a matching gray skirt.

"Aright Rachel, I get it!"

"I was just trying to help." Quinn picked up the phone and took it off of speaker, speaking out of breath.

"You've helped plenty."

"Fine, fine, don't thank me. Don't thank me for waking you up so that you wouldn't miss the meeting. Don't tha-" Quinn hung up on the girl. Not just because she had to have time to get ready, but because she had had enough. The past few days had been crazy and she really didn't need Rachel to make it seem crazier. She threw on some mascara and grabbed her briefcase, running out of her apartment.

She ran into Rachel's office, out of breath, with a few of her bangs that she had pinned back now dangling in front of her eyes.

"Quinn! You made it!" Good old Rachel. She was dressed in a flattering hot pink dress with a black waist jacket. Some of the other women of the office often made fun of her strange outfits, but you had to admit, she brought some color to the place. She went to go hug Quinn but she put her hand out in front of her.

"Don't touch me. I just ran here, and you know how far I live."

"You _ran_ here?" Rachel asked, aghast. "What happened to your car?"

"In the shop, remember?" She replied as she sat down at one of the chairs in front of Rachel's desk. Quinn let out a sigh with her lips like a horse and put her head down on the desk.

"What's with you today Quinny?"

"Don't call me that, you sound like my mother," She retorted. "I don't want to talk about it."

Rachel sighed. "Alright… well I'm here if you need to talk, you know."

There was an awkward silence between the two.

"We should probably go, you went through all of this trouble to get here on time, we shouldn't be late." Quinn sighed and nodded, getting up.

"Sure, let's go."

**So I think that I've decided what to do with Quinn's relationship status by myself, but there might be a slight twist. I don't know yet. Tell me what you think!**


	5. Chapter 5

In the middle of the meeting, Quinn's phone went off and everybody's eyes turned to her. _Shit! _She thought to herself, _Nice one._

She didn't recognize the number, but she had just gotten a new phone and she didn't have all of her old contacts in yet.

"Excuse me." She said, faking a smile as she quickly ran out of the room. "Hello?" She said into the phone. There was a child's voice on the other side of the line.

"H-Hi… I have your wallet."

"Who may I ask is calling?"

"It's Beth." Quinn froze and looked at Rachel through the clear window to the conference room with big eyes and ran out of the building.

"Why do you have my wallet? Where is it? How did you get it?"

"Calm down. When you bumped into me at the coffee shop you must have dropped it into my bag or something."

"_You _bumped into _me_." Quinn mumbled like a child.

"Well are you going to come get it or not?" Beth pestered. The sweet girl that she had met yesterday seemed to have disappeared, Quinn guessed by the tone of her voice. She didn't notice Rachel walk out the doors and stand behind her.

She paused at the phone. "Yeah, sure. I'll be there in a minute."

"Alright, bye."

"Bye." She closed the phone.

"Who was that?" Rachel spoke as a startled Quinn turned around. There was a good minute before Quinn spoke again.

"Please tell Mr. Greenwald that I'm very sorry, but I can't return to the meeting this afternoon."

"What?" Rachel said, louder than she intended. "But he promoted you!"

"I'm sure somebody else would be happy to take the promotion. Please tell him that I have to go and I'm giving it to you."

"_Me_?" She took a second to register in her mind what was happening, and then gave off a radiant smile. " I suppose…" Quinn nodded and began to walk off. "Wait, where are you going anyway?"

She didn't stop. "Somewhere."

Rachel called after her, waving her own wallet in the air. "Well if 'somewhere' is far away, do you want some money for a cab?" Quinn stopped walking and turned around to walk back over to Rachel. She put the money in her hand. "You owe me."

"I always do, don't I?" Quinn said sarcastically, waving over a cab.

"Where are you going though ,seriously?"

She looked at Rachel for a long moment. "To my daughters' house." She said before getting into the cab and driving away.

Beth opened the door before Quinn could even get the chance to knock.

"Hey." Beth said. "U-Um," She moved away from the door to allow her mother to come in. "Come inside." Quinn nodded and stepped into the now familiar house, eyeing her wallet on the table.

"I think that we need to talk, Beth."

"Not _again_." She said in a whining tone.

"Sit down, I'm going to talk and you're going to listen! You're not the only person that this is hard for, you know!" Quinn was shouting now. She was tired, she was annoyed, and she was angry. She wanted to sort this out.

"Sorry." Beth said softly before sitting down on the green couch that Quinn had sat on the day before. Quinn sighed as she paced back and forth, before sitting next to her daughter. Neither of them made eye contact with each other, they both looked at the floor.

"Listen, I-" She hadn't really planned what to say. "I know that this is like, really weird for you, and _believe me_, it's weird for me too, I just… I didn't _want_ to give you up, Beth." The girl continued to look at the floor, although her mother had turned to look at the side of her head. "If I hadn't given you up, who knows where either of us would be. You, Noah and I might be stuck on the side of a highway right now pleading for money. I wanted to do what was best for all of us, but what was best for you too, you know?" Beth looked up so that they were looking into each others' eyes for the first time.

"I get it, it's just weird." The eye contact was too much for Beth, and she looked away again. "I'm sorry I freaked out yesterday. I was still sorta in shock."

"Did you tell Shelby? That we met, I mean."

"Yeah." Quinn cringed a bit.

"Was she angry? Did she seem annoyed with me?"

"Nah, I think she was just happy that she wasn't gonna have to explain the whole story to me one day." She said with a laugh, which brought out a smile in Quinn. They laughed alike. They looked at each other again.

"I do still want to be a part of your life. Would you be okay with that?"

"Of course." Beth said with a grin.

Quinn laughed lightly. "I feel like we have so much to catch up on."

"We do!" She turned her body to face her mother and sat cross-legged on the couch. Quinn had already grown to love her childish personality. She laughed.

"So tell me about school." Beth's smile faded into a look of sorrow. Quinn raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"I _hate_ school. I hate everyone there, they're all so mean." She said with a pout. The thought of someone picking on this beautiful, original girl made her want to punch something.

"Who's mean?"

"_Everyone_. Especially Brian." Beth's lips turned sour at the name.

"Who's Brian?"

"This kid that I hate." Quinn smiled, but she didn't know why.

"Why do you hate him?"

"You have a lot of questions." Beth laughed. "He's just… I don't know. He's a bully. We fight all the time." Quinn frowned again.

"What does he say to you?"

"He used to call me short, but now he just bothers and so I bother him back. It's sorta fun, actually."

Quinn raised an eyebrow jokingly. "Sounds like you like him a little bit, huh?"

Beth looked horrified. "No way! That's disgusting!" They both laughed.

Quinn was finally happy. She hoped that things would stay this way.

**What do you think? Do you like it so far? I know I said I've been busy but now I can't stop writing! I have soooo much homework to do. I find this more important ;) You know how I said I wouldn't beg for reviews? Well I won't, but I do think that a _few_ would be nice. I just want to know what your thoughts are so far. Thank you for reading!(:**


	6. Be Back Soon!

Sorry, I don't mean to trick you with this update because it's not part of the story. I had planned to update today but my show starts tonight and I have shows every night until Sunday, then a week of free nights, then shows again. So, I guess this "update" is sort of pointless. I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm not leaving you in the dust! Thank you _so_ much for all of your reviews! You're the best! :)


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